1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus for and methods of bracing soil, retaining water, and blocking roots. In another aspect, the present invention relates to flexible reinforcement apparatus for and methods of bracing soil, retaining water, and blocking roots. In even another aspect, the present invention relates to flexible reinforced water reinforcement member for and methods of bracing soil, retaining water, and blocking roots. In still another aspect, the present invention relates to a flexible woven water permeable material having reinforcement structure on each side for and methods of bracing soil, retaining water, and blocking roots.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ornamental gardening, as opposed to produce gardening, around a residence has been a popular activity for hundreds of years. Traditional English gardening has its roots in the aristocratic gardens of royal home owners and slowly became practiced on a smaller scale around typical residences.
Perusal of the volume of gardening books and magazines in any bookstore reveals that gardening is indeed very popular in the United States.
Many garden purists believe that a garden is not complete without water. However, providing water in a garden, whether as a pond or running stream, is a complicated task which presents many problems.
Other inherent gardening problems include maintaining plants and/or their roots in a desired section of the garden, and bracing soil around the edges of beds.
There are many prior art patents and articles directed to providing water in a garden, maintaining plants and/or their roots in a desired section of the garden, or bracing soil around the edges of beds.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,436,770, issued Feb. 24, 1948 to Hill, et al, discloses a garden layout and apparatus for separating the soils and plants in the garden. The garden includes various beds containing cultivated plants, walkways, and grass borders, all of which are separated by separators. The separators are described as being preferably formed of paper or fiber board of laminated or corrugated construction, saturated, impregnated or coded, with a material such as asphalt that is resistant to water, to acid, to alkalines, plant food, corrosion and the like. The separator is described by being prepared by dipping or otherwise coating or impregnating a laminated or corrugated fiber paper or board of conventional structure with the asphalt or like material, with the treated board preferably being of such ductility that it can be formed in strips and rolled for ease in handling, shipping or storage. As a method of insertion, the separator is inserted in a ditch or other depression formed around a garden bed of any desirable shape or size, with the fiber paper or board separator readily being conformed by bending to the desired shape as it is inserted. Alternatively, it is disclosed that the garden bed may be excavated and the interior of the wall of the bed lined with one or more strips of the separator material and the bed refilled with a suitable treated earth for the plants to grow therein. It is also disclosed that the separator may be utilized to prevent growing tree roots from encroaching upon the cultivated bed. Finally, it is disclosed that the separator may be adapted for use in nurseries and breeders gardens where the roots of each variety of plant may be separated as to assure that the roots are as true as to variety. Specifically, the roots of a plant or shrubbery enclosed in a ball of earth and the earth provided with a peripheral covering of the separator.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,315,408, issued Apr. 25, 1967 to Fisher, discloses an article which will prevent or eliminate soil erosion by providing a disintegratable covering over areas subject to soil erosion which have been seated and which will provide a protection against erosion for these areas until erosion preventing vegetation has germinated beneath the protective covering. The covering is broadly disclosed as including all types of inter-engaged or inter-connected filaments, yarns, fibers and the like which will sufficiently cohere as to form a substantially continuous blanket or covering. The material utilized has a controllable or predetermined rate or time for disintegration under various agents including in particular a biochemical reaction caused by enzymatic action of microorganisms such as soil bacteria, when the covering is placed on the ground in contact with the soil. Disclosed as a further essential feature of the covering is that the protective covering blanket provided shall include hollow core soluble or disintegratable filaments, yarns or fibers formed from soluble cellulosic derivative material in which are filled with a fluid material selected from the group consisting of fertilizers, pesticides and weed killers in which have walls rupturable and disintegratable by the biochemical reaction caused by the micro organisms in the ground when the yarns are placed on the ground in contact with the soil so as to release at a predetermined time the fluids in the yarns with contact of the fluids with the ground.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,421,439, issued Dec. 20, 1983 to ter Burg, et al, discloses a sporting fabric for bearing bulk material such as sand, gravel, stones, clay, loam, or other bulk material, and a method of building a road, embankment, a dike, a dam or some other structure form from bulk material. The supporting fabric is characterized in that the yarns extending the warp direction of the fabric are formed by straight warp yarns and binder warp yarns, the straight warp yarns each having a higher strength than the binder warps yarns, with construction being such that when the fabric is subjected to a tensile load in the warp direction, the straight warp yarns bear a higher proportion of the tensile load than the binder warp yarns, preferably at least 80% of the tensile load. For the method of stabilizing soil and/or building a road embankment, a dike, a dam or some other structure formed of bulk or other material, the supporting fabrics are provided with transverse portions. The supporting fabrics are placed horizontally with one or more layers of the bulk material formed on top of the horizontally lined supporting fabric. The supporting fabrics may also be placed horizontally between various horizontal layers of the bulk material. The transverse partitions extend perpendicularly away from the supporting fabric and help support the bulk material.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,358,356, issued Oct. 25, 1994 to Romanek, et al, discloses an erosion control mat formed of a scrim having a light weight web secured thereto and a method of applying said erosion control mat to a soil surface to control erosion. The grid sides of the scrim should be selected to provide a uniform reinforcing and be large enough to allow easy plant penetration through the grid, with the maximum grid opening in the range of about 1/16 of an inch, with a preferred size in the range of about 3/4 of an inch to about 5/8 of an inch. The composite fabric selected will allow for ready penetration of plants, light, and water through the erosion control mat. Although the scrim and the lightweight web may be assembled and bonded together by any suitable technique known to those of skill in the art, including, but not limited to chemical, thermal, or mechanical bonding methods, it is presently preferred to bond the scrim to the lightweight web by needle punching the lightweight web to the scrim. The erosion control mat is suitable for installation in a great variety of situations where the ground has been disturbed and the soil is subject to erosion including, but not limited to the replanting of highway road embankments, construction sites, mining and mining reclamation sites, park areas, and landfills. It is generally preferred to install the erosion control mat on a soil surface that has been smoothed with readily available equipment such as graters, tractors with box blades, or other suitable implements. The soil surface to be replanted can be seated before or after applying the erosion control mat.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,393,313, issued Feb. 28, 1995 to Reiger, discloses an improved method of growing nursery stock for transplantation which basically comprises forming a plurality of spaced holes in the ground, placing a porous fabric blanket over and into the holes whereby depressions in the blanket conform with the holes. The porous fabric blanket has sufficient strength to constrict penetrating roots whereby root growth below the blanket is restricted and enlarged root nodule formation and root branching are promoted within the depression above the blanket. When the plants are ready for transplantation, they are readily and easily removed from the depressions in the blanket.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,575,112, issued Nov. 19, 1996 to Scheubel, discloses a method for controlling growth of plant roots, which consist in positioning close to the root plants a water permeable, non-woven fabric made of synthetic fibers coated or otherwise impregnated with a water insoluble polymeric binder in which is disbursed a water insoluble inorganic copper compound in an amount effective to stop root growth, the binder being bound to the fabric and thus retaining and refining the copper compound to the fabric, whereby, in use, the coated fabric stops the growth of undesirable rootlets or radicles which come in contact thereto.
"Gardens, Pools and Fountains", Ortho Books, 1988, discloses several methods for installing a garden pool, including use of a flexible liner, or the use of a prefabricated pool. This book teaches that the pool walls are cut into the soil and should have a slope of about 20.degree., or even more if the soil is loose or sandy. The lining is then placed flush against the slopping soil. It further teaches that at the edges of the pool, there should be at least 6 inches of the flexible liner showing all around the edges of the pool with this extra liner secured by, digging a shallow trench around the edge of the pool, and placing the extra liner in the trench, and then covering it with soil, stones, or paving material.
"Water In The Garden", James Allison, 1991, discloses several methods of installing a pool in a garden including use of pool liners, preformed pools, and concrete pools. While noting that liner ponds are the easiest of the types of ponds to install, and that liners are usually the most economic method of pool construction, it further notes that to their disadvantage, liners can be punctured by sharp implements, sharped edge stones and the roots of certain invasive plants, such as bamboo, and that the shelves around liners may tend to lose their shape with time. This book does suggest that if sharp tipped plant roots are prevalent, that one lay a barrier persistent herbicide under the liner, and to prevent soil slippage that one utilize a mix of fairly stiff concrete containing fine aggregate, which is worked into the soil to provide a layer that is about 1 to 2 inches thick, around the top edge, on the shelves, and on any steep sides of the pond. This book recommends concrete collars for steep sided pools and heavy forms of edging.
"The Pond Doctor", Helen Nash, 1994, discloses methods of constructing a pond in a garden including the use of a preformed pond or a liner. This book discloses the use of hidden liner edging, which it describes as a lining of mortared bricks treated for lime, or simple edge construction which it describes as stiff concrete mixed into the soil around the edge of the pond beneath the pond liner. This book further discloses that deterioration of pool edging may occur from moisture in the surrounding soil that allows the edge to settle, from porous soil composition that cannot support heavy rocks, or from heavy stone that is used with a deep or straight sided pool, with suggestions made to affect repairs including the use of a concrete collar, concrete reinforced soil, or hidden liner construction. It further teaches that unstable capstones in the liner edge can be embedded in a trench concrete installed a few inches from the pool edge, with the concrete reinforced with steel mesh or rebar.
Conventional soil bracing products which are commercially available to the recreational gardener are generally made out of either solid metal or plastic. For example, LineUps.TM. earth retainer beams are available from Serenity Ponds & Streams of Seal Beach, Calif., and the 1997 Gardener's Supply Company of Burlington, Vt. offers recycled plastic retainer beams with preformed corner fasteners.
However, many of these commonly available braces suffer from several deficiencies. These commercially available solid braces do not allow water to easily escape out of the bed, resulting in unhealthy plants, bogging soil, and plant root rot. In some instances the added weight of the retained water can threaten the soil brace. It is also noted that conventional soil bracing products are typically available in four to six inch widths that do not offer elevated bed support. It is even also noted that conventional products such as steel edging or thick plastic edging can be heavy, very hard or impossible to bend, and very difficult to adapt to a particular geometric arrangement as needed. It is still also noted that many of the conventional bracing products such as steel edging require special expensive metal cutters for onsite fabrication. It is yet also noted that conventionally available steel edging is generally heavy and expensive to ship.
Thus, in spite of the advancements in the prior art, there is still a number of deficiencies in the prior art requiring a need for improvement in methods of and apparatus for providing water in a garden, maintaining plants and/or their roots in a desired section of the garden, and bracing soil around the edges of beds.
There is another need in the art for a garden landscaping soil brace and/or water retaining brace which is long lasting, strong and durable.
There is even another need in the art for a garden landscaping and/or water retaining brace which allows the flow of water, nutrients and fertilizers in both directions across the brace.
There is still another need in the art for a garden landscape brace and/or water retaining brace which can easily be adaptable to various widths and lengths for adaptation to various landscape needs.
There is yet another need in the art for a garden landscape brace and/or water retaining brace which is flexible to allow the landscaper to adapt the brace to curves as well as straight lines without any special fittings that are required by some conventional products.
There is even still another need in the art for a garden landscape brace and/or water retaining brace which is easy to cut and install resulting in decreased installation time, and which does not require special expensive metal cutters.
There is even yet another need in the art for a garden landscape brace and/or water retaining brace which is of lighter weight, resulting in reduced shipping charges and lower costs to the ultimate purchaser.
There is still even another need in the art for a garden landscape brace and/or water retaining brace which is less costly than the current all metal braces.
Finally, there is still yet another need in the art for a garden landscape brace and/or water retaining brace which is not too obtrusive or noticeable when utilized in a garden to provide more of a natural garden appearance.
These and other needs in the art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon review of this specification, including its drawings and claims.